Mexneurin is a novel precursor of peptides in the central nervous system of rodents.

FEBS letters 2017 Jun

filter terms:

Endomorphins (EMs) have been proposed as the endogenous ligand agonists of the μ-opioid receptor; however, no propeptide precursor protein for EMs has been identified. Here, to identify the presumed precursor of EMs, we designed an immunoscreening assay using specific affinity-purified rabbit antisera raised against synthetic EMs in a whole-mouse brain cDNA library. Following this approach, we identify a DNA sequence encoding a protein precursor, which we name proMexneurin, that contains three different peptide sequences: Mexneurin-1 (an EM-like peptide), Mexneurin-2, and Mexneurin-3, a peptide which appears to be unrelated to EMs. RT-PCR analysis and in situ hybridization reveal a widespread distribution of proMexneurin mRNA throughout the mouse brain. Both Mexneurin-1 and Mexneurin-3 peptides display biological activities in the mouse CNS. © 2017 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Citation

Maura E Matus-Ortega, Philippe Leff Gelman, Juan C Calva-Nieves, Anabel Flores-Zamora, Alberto Salazar-Juárez, Carlos-Alejandro Torner-Aguilar, Gerardo Gamba, Paola De Los Heros, Bonnie Peng, John E Pintar, Heinrich S Gompf, Charles N Allen, Benito Antón-Palma. Mexneurin is a novel precursor of peptides in the central nervous system of rodents. FEBS letters. 2017 Jun;591(12):1627-1636